Busywork (FFXI)

[thistlechaser]

For lack of anything better to do, I decided to go to Norg to try to get a new starter SAM GK so I could work on leveling the job. Went there, talked to all the SAM job opening NPCs, none of them would take money. Hit Google, and the only pages I can find say you can only buy it back once you have AF1 flagged. Bah. I leveled SAM 1-4 with the 1 damage wooden GK, and it was the most painful pre-10 leveling I ever did. Took hours to get the first four levels, resting after each fight. I suppose I'll do 4-8 with a sword or something, then catch GK skill up later.

Since I failed to get the GK, I looked for quests to do in Norg. Did two. Killed time. Yay.

Hit the bottom of my things I want to do list, which left me with only chocobo digging. Why, oh why, did I ever start that again? I paid over 37K for two runs of digging (18 stacks of greens each) and got a grand total of: 3 iron ores, 3 insect wings, 2 flint stones, 1 bone chip, and 1 sprig of sage. Dug across four different zones, zoning on a regular basis. (Just 15-ish seconds delay after zoning, so I can zone as often as I need to.) So I paid over 37K for, what, well under 2K worth of stuff. Sigh.

I really, really wish there was something I wanted to do on-game. XPing is boring, questing makes me fall asleep. There's crafting I can do, but it's not fun and I don't need money, so why bother? Besieged is the only thing I have fun at, and even that has been getting dull lately (plus on work days I usually can't even catch one).

--

Played some Animal Crossing (Wild World) while staring at my mog house wall. While it wasn't any more fun than I recalled it to be, it was still much better than having nothing to do in FFXI.

Maybe tomorrow I'll go back to FFX for a while... or reinstall WoW? I was bored with WoW when I left and I don't exactly want to go back to it, but gah, I need some new hobby! It's getting to the point where I'm dragging my feet leaving work because I have nothing to do at home.

Wow, this was a complain-y post, wasn't it?

Comments

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Ow. x.x Sam doesn't get any sword at level 1, does it.. Guh! I looked on Alla , and found that Sam can use a dagger. Better that then that wooden katana? There's also the Ash Club, which all jobs can use. Maybe one of those two will make leveling easier to eight. @.@

[draymor.livejournal.com]

I think he's talking about that lvl 1 all jobs event GK... poor Thistle trying to kill things with a toy sword ; ;

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what was it called? Lotus Katana? Something like that. The one we used for beating those armors with. And the NQ version of it, no less!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

SAM with a dagger. Heehee. But yes, it'll have to be better than the silly wooden one!

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know what he was talking about. :) Thing is.. there is no other level 1 great katana if you toss the one you get for opening the job. So he's rather stuck for what to use. :)

[genomeffxi.livejournal.com]

Wow, this was a complain-y post! hehe

Why do you do things the most painful way :)
Definitely don't use the wooden gkt from the event =) go ahead and use sword, in fact at 5 pick up a longbow+1 and start one-shotting mobs for xp, SAM is good with bow and ranged is overpowered at low levels.
Also take my advice and sub PUP for soloing it's great even up to 18.
The starting frame is good enough, it will cast cures on you etc.
You can look again at my last LJ entry for other general tips. From 1-5 you should have been able to 1-shot EMs for great chains with no rest ever =)

Digging is all about choosing the right locations/times, and deciding what level of gable you want. The zones you dug up, from what you describe, are around jeuno, the most dug up. High risk of empty for some potential high reward. You can tell if a zone is too dug up and usually you should postpone if they are. I have been leveling some jobs at 25-30 and digging in jungles is very profitable and a great way to pass time waiting on invites. Areas like near starting towns or some craigs are great too, you can change to whm to check them out quickly, but when they seem empty, for the love of all that's wholesome, stop and move to something else! Don't do something if it seems painfun and unfun, step back and think of what you might need to change and what strategy to use, and you should have a lot more fun.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Why do you do things the most painful way :)
Definitely don't use the wooden gkt from the event =) go ahead and use sword, in fact at 5 pick up a longbow+1 and start one-shotting mobs for xp, SAM is good with bow and ranged is overpowered at low levels.

Because I've had to skill slow two-handed weapons before! I didn't want to start falling behind early! Heh. Okay, maybe pre-8 levels are just a little too early to worry about. Assuming I go back to this tonight (probably will) I'll get some non-GK weapon and a bow (for once I hit5).

Also take my advice and sub PUP for soloing it's great even up to 18.

But that would require me to level PUP! I have only two jobs left never touched, and PUP is one of them. (Though I suppose leveling it to 9 wouldn't be too bad...)

The zones you dug up, from what you describe, are around jeuno, the most dug up.

I try to split where I dig. I'd like to level further, which means I need the more challenging items around Jeuno. However I'd like not to toss ALL of my money out the window, so I also dig elsewhere. I try to do a run (or two, if I'm doing lots of them) outside Jeuno, then go elsewhere to try to recover my money.

The Jungles have been where I've made my best money, but they're the second most popular digging spot for folks on my server. Hours and hours of "you dig and you dig, but find nothing" eventually melt my brain.

Yeah, I /WHM to dig around the crags. Dem's okay money, but Mea's my favorite (Canyon and Mountains, where I did my second run last night). I've always avoided Holla, since little good is dug up there and so much of it is unstackable. (Hello garbage logs!)

Last night I was pondering going into Carpenter's Landing to dig. There's not much good stuff there to dig up, but I bet few diggers go there. (How many people even know you can ride a chocobo in there?) I'm wondering if that might be a good spot to try to level up in...

[genomeffxi.livejournal.com]

Carpenter is about the same as jugner's forest, lots of logs too.
Yeah so for digging my feeling is just you need to pick times carefully, or move around a lot until you find a place fairly full of items, or just try to couple it with something else, like while seeking for PT or looking around for a NM or something.
I understand you know what you're doing, these are just some tips so you have a more enjoyable time digging, leveling up, etc. Even if the results at the end were the same, having fun while doing something ingame is really the more important thing.

[desant-chan.livejournal.com]

It's a slow period right now during the summertime. Some are away, some are on, but they're often caught up with plans of their own. It's quiet, the warm weather's hampering one's...initiative thinking thingy... (hampering some peoople's vocabulary too *sighs*) and frankly, 2.5 years in the same game leads to the occasional burn-out.

....at least that's what I'm struggling with these days.

Take a little time off to do something else for a while if you think it'll help. If it doesn't, remember that there's most likely something new you've yet to discover in-game.
And if you still get your kicks from helping other people with party-based quests and events I have a long list here lying around here somewhere... <.<


As for skilling great katana there's an easy way. Buy one that's usable for both samurai and ninja, then go solo slow, easy mobs as a ninja until you're far above the SAM level 8 skillcap. Won't take alot of time and you can take it easy with swords, daggers, bows and spears while leveling.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ugh! I don't want you to get burn out! *clutches you* No leaving! Never ever ever! (Or at least not until after I'm gone! ;) )

And if you still get your kicks from helping other people with party-based quests and events I have a long list here lying around here somewhere...

Heck yeah! There's hardly a day I couldn't help with something like that! Poke me if/when you need help.

Buy one that's usable for both samurai and ninja, then go solo slow

Oh, duh. There are some that NINs can use? Sheesh, that'll make it easy. Thanks for the idea!